Vanilla Cupcake with Palisade Peaches and Whipped Cream

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Originally uploaded by L.TON

I've recently begun to bake in Boulder. I thought I'd start with cookies but 5 batches deep now… I still haven't quite gotten it right… I found this great article on NPR about a women who did a DIY wedding cake for her brothers wedding and made a Alice Water's 1-2-3-4 Cake. Essentially, that's what my vanilla cupcake recipe entails, with a few high altitude modifications (slightly less flour, slightly more liquid, slightly higher temperature) and a little bit of Lisa touch. I also opted not to make frosting and instead made a peach compote type thing with a dollop of whipped cream to top it off. The cake itself is moist, dense and very rick in flavor.

These peaches are special. They are called "Palisade Peaches", and come from the south western corner Colorado. I always thought the best peaches came from California (best peach experience was when Craig Edelman brought me and entire case of white peaches fresh from the farmers market for my birthday) but no, in actuality, CO makes a darn good peach. They are extraordinarily fuzzy compared to any other peach I have ever seen and oh so very juicy, soft and nearly instantly ripe.

In the cake, instead of regular whole milk, I used buttermilk, which gives it such a nice creamy, tangy burst of flavor, a little trick I learned from my friend Jen in grad school. I'll do my best to keep it so that you can make this at sea level too, but here is the original recipe and the NPR article. You'll see I'll add a different value, # @SL, meaning use this amount if you are at sea level!

If you are super lazy, (although I don't really recommend it), canned whipped cream or cool whip would be sufficient as a quick topper.


Oh, and how am I doing you might ask? Ahh, just fine. And yes, I am still unemployed but am one happy camper!!

Vanilla Cupcake with Peach Compote and Whipped Cream

ingredients
cupcake
.75 tsp/2 tsp@SL baking powder
.25 tsp sea salt
1.33 c/1.5 c @SL AP flour , sift then measure
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1 c granulated white sugar
2 eggs, separated
1 tsp vanilla extract
.5 c buttermilk

peach compote
2 tblspn unsalted butter
3 medium, ripe peaches, diced into .25 inch pieces
pinch of salt
2 tblspn brown sugar

whipped cream
.5 c heavy whipping cream
3 tblspn pwoder sugar
.5 tsp vanilla extract


instructions
cupcake
1. Preheat your oven to 375 (350@SL), prepare cupcake tin.
2. whipped butter and sugar together until creamed and fluffy
3. add one yolk at a time until mixed, add vanilla
4. in a separate bowl, mix flour, baking powder and salt
5. alternating between dry, wet, dry, wet, ending in dry combine flour mixture and buttermilk
6. in a metal or copper bowl, whisk egg whites until soft peaks form
7. fold in egg white mixture (by hand) in thirds until all egg whites have been incorporated
8. pour into pan (2/3rd full for standard, 1/2 full for giant sized)
9. bake 20 or so minutes until toothpick comes out clean.

makes 8 giant cupcakes, or 12 standard cupcakes


peach compote
1. melt butter on medium high heat. DO NOT CAUSE THE BUTTER TO BROWN
2. sauté peaches, add salt
3. add brown sugar and cook until peaches are soft and liquid around peaches is bubbly
4. you can also add a splash of amaretto or grand marnier at this point or a sprinkle of cinnamon.


whipped cream
1. first mix sugar and vanilla
2. slowly add in cream until soft peaks form
3. do not over beat or else you will get butter


THE WHOLE CUPCAKE
once the cupcake has been cooled on a wire rack and the compote has been cooled to RT, put the compote on the cupcake and then add a dollop of whipped cream. Voila!